Listed building is damaged by lorry

8:10am Monday 2nd April 2012 in News

Renewed calls: Weight restrictions should be in place in Newent centre say local residents.

THERE are renewed calls for weight restrictions to be introduced on roads in the centre of Newent after a listed building was damaged when it was hit by a lorry.

Police closed the bottom end of Culver Street for several hours on Friday when the lorry collided with the Buttery Tea Rooms just before 3pm.

Owner Judith Curtis was forced to close the business while a surveyor inspected the damage, and the remains of the chimney had to be painstakingly taken down brick-by-brick later that evening for
fear it would collapse.

Fortunately for Mrs Curtis the damage was largely restricted to the chimney, and she was able to open as usual on Saturday.

“As far as we know there is no other structural damage,” she said.

“The most important thing is that no one was hurt. If someone had been passing on the pavement outside then it could have been a lot worse.”

Mayor Len Lawton said Culver Street residents and members of Newent Town Council have been calling for weight restrictions in the town centre for several years.

“A beautiful and ancient building has now been mortally wounded and if an example was ever needed of why we want a weight limit, this is it,” he said.

“We acknowledge that there will always be vehicles that need to make deliveries, but Newent and Culver Street in particular are used as a cut-through.”

His calls were echoed by Culver Street resident Mike Crowther, who said: “It is dangerous as it is.

If someone had been on that pavement then I don’t think they’d be with us now..”

Gloucestershire Highways this week confirmed it is working on a weight restriction proposal as part of Newent’s town centre regeneration scheme.

Comments(1)

emell

says…

8:55am Mon 2 Apr 12

Bit late with this news, it was last Friday week (March 27th) when it happened
emell

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